


Break a plate and eat off the shards

by zukoisthebluespirit (BlockSwingPerry)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Haunting, Murder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22894240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlockSwingPerry/pseuds/zukoisthebluespirit
Summary: Azula has a nightmare in which her brother, Zuko, comes to haunt her for murdering him. (Warning: The dream is the first chapter and then the rest will be chapters working up to the dream and then a conclusion.)
Relationships: Azula & Crew, Azula & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 44





	Break a plate and eat off the shards

Azula is in a palace courtyard, perched high up in a tree near one of the far ends of the yard. 

She is small, a younger version of herself. 

S he looks around her surroundings. 

And notices a young Zuko playing near the pond. 

Azula sees that his back is turned and hunched over and little turtle ducks surround him, softly quacking. Azula cannot see what he is doing, but she hears soft laughter and splashing of water.

Not once can she spy his chest move in tune to the rhythm of laughter, nor movements of his arms. 

_ They lay still at his side.  _

Curious as to how her brother is managing to make so much noise with so little movement, Azula leans out of the tree to see what her brother is doing. She leans a little too far and falls off the branch. 

She seems to hit every branch on the way down. 

Her body hits the ground hard and her breath is momentarily stolen. Azula closed her eyes in pain and curls in on herself. When she opens them, Zuko is standing over her. 

It’s hard to look up at him. The sun is shining brightly and is directly over Zuko, marking the hour as noon. 

It hurts Azula’s eyes to look up at Zuko. His face is particularly hard to look at, covered in shadow. 

“Now, what did I tell you about climbing the trees ‘Zula?” 

Zuko’s voice is light and soft. 

Which is impossible because the last time she heard Zuko, his voice was scratchy and harsh.

But why? 

Azula strained to remember if her brother had been sick recently. He hadn’t, so why does the silky smoothness of his voice unnerve her? 

“Not to? Because I will fall.”  Azula answers in a clipped tone. 

Her mind felt fuzzy in a way that screamed danger. Like there was something important she was forgetting. 

What was it, what was it?

There was something very wrong here and Azula knew it.

“Yes. Very good.” Zuko crouched down to help her up. His hands gripped her shoulder tightly to heave her up. 

“Now,” Zuko turned Azula’s head to the side to look her in the eyes. 

[Azula realized with horror that his face was all wrong. There was no left side of his face, almost as if someone had decided Zuzu’s face was all wrong and decided to wipe it clean to correct it. Where there would be an eye, there was smooth skin. His lips tapered to nothing and his ear was nowhere to be seen. Who? _ Who had stolen it? _ ]

_ “What did I say the last time you saw me?”  _

It was an innocent question. A simple, easy question. Why did Zuko make it sound so threatening? 

Azula opened her mouth to answer, but Zuko leaned into her personal space staring into her eyes with his lone one making, her uncomfortable. 

She needed to getaway.

Azula dug her heels into the dirt to try and push herself away from her brother. 

_ “What were my last words Azula?”  _

The ground was unfortunately wet and soggy, even though just a moment ago it had been hard enough to hurt her as she fell from the tree, and tugged on Azula’s heels rather than letting her escape her brother’s advances. 

Azula abandoned digging her heels into the mud and shoved Zuko off her. 

Lightning flew from her fingertips and suddenly Azula remembered why his question chilled her to the bone. 

Zuko was dead. Died at her fingertips. This thought comforted her briefly. After all, Zuzu was now powerless, right? He wasn’t real right now and could not affect her. 

So when Zuko, who she had flung at the tree she fell out of, rose up from the ground, his body rolling up like some possessed doll with no spine, she stood her ground. 

And then she realized that she was dreaming and that perhaps maybe, just maybe, her brother held some power in the realm she went to when she slept. 

She dodged a sloppy hit from her brother, aimed at her head. She ducked and his hand flew right over her head and into the soft earth. His fist was now trapped.

Azula wisely backed away as his head whipped around like an owlcat to stare at her once more. 

_ “My last words Azula, what were they? Surely you remember. You always remember.”  _

Zuko’s voice had shifted into his scratchy one, his true voice.

_ “ _ _ I won’t be able to rest until I have them, Azula. You’ve disrespected me and now you’re gonna pay.” _

**Author's Note:**

> Trying something a little new with the story line, having the hook before build up. We'll see how this goes.


End file.
